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Luck
Selected AbstractsMORAL LUCK: OPTIONAL, NOT BRUTE*PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVES, Issue 1 2009Michael Otsuka First page of article [source] MAKING OUR OWN LUCKRATIO, Issue 3 2007David Hodgson It has been contended that we can never be truly responsible for anything we do: we do what we do because of the way we are, so we cannot be responsible for what we do unless we are responsible for the way we are; and we cannot be responsible for the way we are when we first make decisions in life, so we can never become responsible for the way we are later in life. This article argues that in our consciously chosen actions we respond rationally to whole ,gestalt' experiences in ways that cannot be pre-determined by pre-choice circumstances and laws of nature and/or computational rules; and that this means we are partly responsible for what we do, even if we are not responsible for the way we are. [source] NEUTRALISING LUCK, REWARDING EFFORTANALYTIC PHILOSOPHY, Issue 3 2005Marc Fleurbaey First page of article [source] Knowledge and Varieties of Epistemic LuckDIALECTICA, Issue 4 2001Hamid Vahi It is generally thought that knowledge is incompatible with epistemic luck as the post-Gettier literature makes it abundantly clear. Examples are produced where although a belief is true and justified, it nevertheless falls short of being an instance of knowledge because of the intrusion of luck. Knowledge is regarded as being distinct from lucky guesses. It is, nevertheless, acknowledged by a number of epistemologists that some kind of luck is in fact an inevitable component of the process of knowledge acquisition. In this paper I wish to delineate varieties of epistemic luck in the light of the Gettier literature, and specify the kind that should be tolerated in the process of acquiring knowledge. To do this, it would be best to start by examining some of the recent attempts at analyzing the concept of luck and its bearing on the concept of knowledge. [source] Explaining Australian Economic Success: Good Policy or Good Luck?GOVERNANCE, Issue 2 2006HERMAN SCHWARTZ Australia and some European countries experienced economic "miracles" in the 1990s that reversed prior poor export, employment, and fiscal performance. The miracles might provide transferable lessons about economic governance if it were true that economic governance institutions are malleable, and that actors deliberately changed those institutions in ways that contributed to the miracles. This paper analyzes Australian policy responses to see whether remediation should be attributed to pluck (intentional, strategic remediation of dysfunctional institutions to make them conform with the external environment), luck (environmental change that makes formerly dysfunctional institutions suddenly functional), or just being stuck (endogenous or path-dependent change that brings institutions into conformity with the environment). These distinctions help establish whether actors can consciously engineer institutional change that is "off-path." While pluck appears to explain more than either stuck or luck in the Australian case, the analysis suggests that both off-path behavior and policy transfer are probably rare. [source] Luck: What the nurse should know about it and how it affects nursing situationsINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF NURSING PRACTICE, Issue 1 2000Ruth Shearer RN Luck permeates every aspect of human behaviour. Thus, luck is an aspect of nursing care and client belief of which the nurse should be aware. Beliefs about luck will influence client compliance with recommendations for actions as well as influence actions the client selects in relation to health. Beliefs about luck will also influence actions the nurse may take when responding to clients. [source] Men's Health: Perspectives, Diversity and Paradox by Mike Luck, Margaret Bamford and Peter Williamson, Blackwell Science, Oxford, 2000, 268 pages, £18·99, ISBN 0 632 05288 0.JOURNAL OF ADVANCED NURSING, Issue 2 2001Dean Whitehead No abstract is available for this article. [source] Luck, Evidence and WarJOURNAL OF APPLIED PHILOSOPHY, Issue 3 2006ROB LAWLOR abstract We seem to have conflicting intuitions regarding luck and war, and we seem to be faced with a dilemma. Either, we deny that a war can be made just or unjust as a result of luck, and we accept that we should not appeal to the outcome when claiming that the war was or was not justified. Or, alternatively, we allow that it is legitimate to base our judgements on the outcome, but as a result we must accept that luck can make a war just or unjust. Traditionally, these have been taken to be the two forks of the dilemma, but, in this paper, I argue that they are not the only options. Rather, we can appeal to the outcome of our actions without claiming that this is, in anyway, an appeal to moral luck. Rather, the outcome provides us with evidence. [source] Luck, Mystery and Supremacy: D. Z. Phillips Reads Nagel and Williams on MoralityPHILOSOPHICAL INVESTIGATIONS, Issue 3 2007Stephen Mulhall This paper critically examines D. Z. Phillips' critical examination of Nagel's and Williams's famous exchange about moral luck. It argues that Phillips fails properly to identify the fundamental issues at stake in the exchange , particularly with respect to the role of scepticism, of the picture of the will as an extensionless point, and of the putative supremacy of morality , and so fails to recognise a certain commonality of interest between himself and those he criticises. [source] Luck, Leverage, and Equality: A Bargaining Problem for Luck EgalitariansPHILOSOPHY AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS, Issue 3 2007MATTHEW SELIGMAN First page of article [source] Luck versus Skill in the Cross-Section of Mutual Fund ReturnsTHE JOURNAL OF FINANCE, Issue 5 2010EUGENE F. FAMA ABSTRACT The aggregate portfolio of actively managed U.S. equity mutual funds is close to the market portfolio, but the high costs of active management show up intact as lower returns to investors. Bootstrap simulations suggest that few funds produce benchmark-adjusted expected returns sufficient to cover their costs. If we add back the costs in fund expense ratios, there is evidence of inferior and superior performance (nonzero true ,) in the extreme tails of the cross-section of mutual fund , estimates. [source] I,Radical Scepticism, Epistemic Luck, and Epistemic ValueARISTOTELIAN SOCIETY SUPPLEMENTARY VOLUME, Issue 1 2008Duncan Pritchard It is argued that it is beneficial to view the debate regarding radical scepticism through the lens of epistemic value. In particular, it is claimed that we should regard radical scepticism as aiming to deprive us of an epistemic standing that is of special value to us, and that this methodological constraint on our dealings with radical scepticism potentially has important ramifications for how we assess the success of an anti-sceptical strategy. [source] Luck And Equality: Susan HurleyARISTOTELIAN SOCIETY SUPPLEMENTARY VOLUME, Issue 1 2001Susan Hurley I argue that the aim to neutralize the influence of luck on distribution cannot provide a basis for egalitarianism: it can neither specify nor justify an egalitarian distribution. Luck and responsibility can play a role in determining what justice requires to be redistributed, but from this we cannot derive how to distribute: we cannot derive a pattern of distribution from the ,currency' of distributive justice. I argue that the contrary view faces a dilemma, according to whether it understands luck in interpersonal or counterfactual terms. [source] Elemental abundance analyses with DAO spectrograms: XXXI.ASTRONOMISCHE NACHRICHTEN, Issue 1 200841 Cyg (F5 Ib-II), Her (F2 II), The early F supergiants Abstract This series of high quality elemental abundance analyses of mostly Main Sequence normal and peculiar B, A, and F stars defines their properties and provides data for the comparison with analyses of somewhat similar stars and with theoretical predictions. Most use high dispersion and high S/N (, 200) spectrograms obtained with CCD detectors at the long camera of the 1.22-m Dominion Astrophysical Observatory telescope's coudé spectrograph. Here we expand the range of stars examined to include two relatively quiescent F supergiants. , Her (F2 II) and 41 Cyg (F5 Ib-II) are analyzed as consistently as possible with previous studies. These LTE fine analyses use the ATLAS9 and the WIDTH9 programs of R. L. Kurucz. High signal-to-noise spectrograms and high quality atomic data were employed. The derived values of these photometrically constant stars are somewhat different with the abundances of , Her being somewhat metal-poor and those of 41 Cyg being crudely solar-like. Our analyses indicate that the basic results of Luck & Wepfer (1995) who also studied , Her and 41 Cyg are not likely to be significantly changed by new studies of all their stars. (© 2008 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim) [source] Opportunism in Capital Budget Recommendations: The Effects of Past Performance and Its Attributions,DECISION SCIENCES, Issue 3 2001Joanna L. Ho Abstract This study uses an experiment to examine the separate and combined effects of managers' loss aversion and their causal attributions about their divisions' performance on tendencies to make goal-incongruent capital budget recommendations. We find that managers' recommendations are biased by their loss aversion. In particular, managers of high-performing divisions are more likely than managers of low-performing divisions to propose investments that maximize their division's short-term profits at the expense of the firm's long-term value. We also find that managers' recommendations are biased by their causal attributions. In particular, managers are more likely to propose investments that maximize their division's short-term profits at the expense of the firm's long-term value when they attribute their division's performance to external causes (e.g., task difficulty or luck) rather than to internal causes (e.g., managerial ability or effort). Further, the effects of causal attributions are greater for managers of high-performing divisions than for managers of low-performing divisions. The study's findings are important because loss aversion and causal attributions are often manifested in firms. Thus, they may bias managers' decisions, which in turn may be detrimental to the firms' long-term value. [source] Pathological gambling: an increasing public health problemACTA PSYCHIATRICA SCANDINAVICA, Issue 4 2001Article first published online: 7 JUL 200 Gambling has always existed, but only recently has it taken on the endlessly variable and accessible forms we know today. Gambling takes place when something valuable , usually money , is staked on the outcome of an event that is entirely unpredictable. It was only two decades ago that pathological gambling was formally recognized as a mental disorder, when it was included in the DSM-III in 1980. For most people, gambling is a relaxing activity with no negative consequences. For others, however, gambling becomes excessive. Pathological gambling is a disorder that manifests itself through the irrepressible urge to wager money. This disorder ultimately dominates the gambler's life, and has a multitude of negative consequences for both the gambler and the people they interact with, i.e. friends, family members, employers. In many ways, gambling might seem a harmless activity. In fact, it is not the act of gambling itself that is harmful, but the vicious cycle that can begin when a gambler wagers money they cannot afford to lose, and then continues to gamble in order to recuperate their losses. The gambler's ,tragic flaw' of logic lies in their failure to understand that gambling is governed solely by random, chance events. Gamblers fail to recognize this and continue to gamble, attempting to control outcomes by concocting strategies to ,beat the game'. Most, if not all, gamblers try in some way to predict the outcome of a game when they are gambling. A detailed analysis of gamblers' selfverbalizations reveals that most of them behave as though the outcome of the game relied on their personal ,skills'. From the gambler's perspective, skill can influence chance , but in reality, the random nature of chance events is the only determinant of the outcome of the game. The gambler, however, either ignores or simply denies this fundamental rule (1). Experts agree that the social costs of pathological gambling are enormous. Changes in gaming legislation have led to a substantial expansion of gambling opportunities in most industrialized countries around the world, mainly in Europe, America and Australia. Figures for the United States' leisure economy in 1996 show gross gambling revenues of $47.6 billion, which was greater than the combined revenue of $40.8 billion from film box offices, recorded music, cruise ships, spectator sports and live entertainment (2). Several factors appear to be motivating this growth: the desire of governments to identify new sources of revenue without invoking new or higher taxes; tourism entrepreneurs developing new destinations for entertainment and leisure; and the rise of new technologies and forms of gambling (3). As a consequence, prevalence studies have shown increased gambling rates among adults. It is currently estimated that 1,2% of the adult population gambles excessively (4, 5). Given that the prevalence of gambling is related to the accessibility of gambling activities, and that new forms of gambling are constantly being legalized throughout most western countries, this figure is expected to rise. Consequently, physicians and mental health professionals will need to know more about the diagnosis and treatment of pathological gamblers. This disorder may be under-diagnosed because, clinically, pathological gamblers usually seek help for the problems associated with gambling such as depression, anxiety or substance abuse, rather than for the excessive gambling itself. This issue of Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica includes the first national survey of problem gambling completed in Sweden, conducted by Volberg et al. (6). This paper is based on a large sample (N=9917) with an impressively high response rate (89%). Two instruments were used to assess gambling activities: the South Oaks Gambling Screen-Revised (SOGS-R) and an instrument derived from the DSM-IV criteria for pathological gambling. Current (1 year) and lifetime prevalence rates were collected. Results show that 0.6% of the respondents were classified as probable pathological gamblers, and 1.4% as problem gamblers. These data reveal that the prevalence of pathological gamblers in Sweden is significantly less than what has been observed in many western countries. The authors have pooled the rates of problem (1.4%) and probable pathological gamblers (0.6%), to provide a total of 2.0% for the current prevalence. This 2% should be interpreted with caution, however, as we do not have information on the long-term evolution of these subgroups of gamblers; for example, we do not know how many of each subgroup will become pathological gamblers, and how many will decrease their gambling or stop gambling altogether. Until this information is known, it would be preferable to keep in mind that only 0.6% of the Swedish population has been identified as pathological gamblers. In addition, recent studies show that the SOGS-R may be producing inflated estimates of pathological gambling (7). Thus, future research in this area might benefit from the use of an instrument based on DSM criteria for pathological gambling, rather than the SOGS-R only. Finally, the authors suggest in their discussion that the lower rate of pathological gamblers obtained in Sweden compared to many other jurisdictions may be explained by the greater availability of games based on chance rather than games based on skill or a mix of skill and luck. Before accepting this interpretation, researchers will need to demonstrate that the outcomes of all games are determined by other factor than chance and randomness. Many studies have shown that the notion of randomness is the only determinant of gambling (1). Inferring that skill is an important issue in gambling may be misleading. While these are important issues to consider, the Volberg et al. survey nevertheless provides crucial information about gambling in a Scandinavian country. Gambling will be an important issue over the next few years in Sweden, and the publication of the Volberg et al. study is a landmark for the Swedish community (scientists, industry, policy makers, etc.). This paper should stimulate interesting discussions and inspire new, much-needed scientific investigations of pathological gambling. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica Guido Bondolfi and Robert Ladouceur Invited Guest Editors References 1.,LadouceurR & WalkerM. The cognitive approach to understanding and treating pathological gambling. In: BellackAS, HersenM, eds. Comprehensive clinical psychology. New York: Pergamon, 1998:588 , 601. 2.,ChristiansenEM. Gambling and the American economy. In: FreyJH, ed. Gambling: socioeconomic impacts and public policy. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 1998:556:36 , 52. 3.,KornDA & ShafferHJ. Gambling and the health of the public: adopting a public health perspective. J Gambling Stud2000;15:289 , 365. 4.,VolbergRA. Problem gambling in the United States. J Gambling Stud1996;12:111 , 128. 5.,BondolfiG, OsiekC, FerreroF. Prevalence estimates of pathological gambling in Switzerland. Acta Psychiatr Scand2000;101:473 , 475. 6.,VolbergRA, AbbottMW, RönnbergS, MunckIM. Prev-alence and risks of pathological gambling in Sweden. Acta Psychiatr Scand2001;104:250 , 256. 7.,LadouceurR, BouchardC, RhéaumeNet al. Is the SOGS an accurate measure of pathological gambling among children, adolescents and adults?J Gambling Stud2000;16:1 , 24. [source] Knowledge and Varieties of Epistemic LuckDIALECTICA, Issue 4 2001Hamid Vahi It is generally thought that knowledge is incompatible with epistemic luck as the post-Gettier literature makes it abundantly clear. Examples are produced where although a belief is true and justified, it nevertheless falls short of being an instance of knowledge because of the intrusion of luck. Knowledge is regarded as being distinct from lucky guesses. It is, nevertheless, acknowledged by a number of epistemologists that some kind of luck is in fact an inevitable component of the process of knowledge acquisition. In this paper I wish to delineate varieties of epistemic luck in the light of the Gettier literature, and specify the kind that should be tolerated in the process of acquiring knowledge. To do this, it would be best to start by examining some of the recent attempts at analyzing the concept of luck and its bearing on the concept of knowledge. [source] Surviving atlanto-occipital dislocationEMERGENCY MEDICINE AUSTRALASIA, Issue 4 2007Benjamin M Bloom Abstract Traumatic atlanto-occipital dislocation carries a significant mortality and morbidity. We present the clinical and radiological features of a case of traumatic skeletal and central nervous system disunion. Thanks to a combination of early resuscitation and luck, the patient survived an improbably severe injury to leave hospital and enjoy a degree of independent life. Such severe injuries are usually fatal and the literature on such extensive cervical disruption is often confined to postmortem evidence. [source] Explaining Australian Economic Success: Good Policy or Good Luck?GOVERNANCE, Issue 2 2006HERMAN SCHWARTZ Australia and some European countries experienced economic "miracles" in the 1990s that reversed prior poor export, employment, and fiscal performance. The miracles might provide transferable lessons about economic governance if it were true that economic governance institutions are malleable, and that actors deliberately changed those institutions in ways that contributed to the miracles. This paper analyzes Australian policy responses to see whether remediation should be attributed to pluck (intentional, strategic remediation of dysfunctional institutions to make them conform with the external environment), luck (environmental change that makes formerly dysfunctional institutions suddenly functional), or just being stuck (endogenous or path-dependent change that brings institutions into conformity with the environment). These distinctions help establish whether actors can consciously engineer institutional change that is "off-path." While pluck appears to explain more than either stuck or luck in the Australian case, the analysis suggests that both off-path behavior and policy transfer are probably rare. [source] How Much of What Matters Can We Redistribute?HYPATIA, Issue 4 2009Justice By meeting needs for individualized love and relatedness, the care we receive deeply shapes our social and economic chances and therefore represents a form of luck. Hence, distributive justice requires a fair distribution of care in society. I look at different ways of ensuring this and argue that full redistribution of care is beyond our reach. I conclude that a strong individual morality informed by an ethics of care is a necessary complement of well-designed institutions. [source] A contingency approach to resource-creation processesINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT REVIEWS, Issue 4 2006Cliff Bowman The resource-based view has provided valuable insights into sources of competitive advantage, but little attention has been paid to the processes of resource creation. To address this shortcoming, this paper reviews the strategy process literature, explaining the theoretical positions and assumptions that underpin different types of process. It then examines the mechanisms by which resources have been found to be created; luck, resource picking, internal development and alliances. Next, a series of resource-creation pathways that illustrate the different routes firm inputs might take on the way to becoming unique and valuable resources is developed. These pathways are also discussed in terms of the strategy processes through which they are developed, and the appropriate resource-creation processes. The review is then extended with the introduction of two contingent variables , task complexity and environmental stability , and the resource-creation processes that are congruent with different combinations of these variables are explored. From this review, one is able to identify the combination of complex task and stable environment likely to be the most conducive to resource creation. Finally, the paper explores opportunities that firms might have to engineer stability and complexity in some parts of their operations with the aim of developing a resource-based advantage. [source] Luck: What the nurse should know about it and how it affects nursing situationsINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF NURSING PRACTICE, Issue 1 2000Ruth Shearer RN Luck permeates every aspect of human behaviour. Thus, luck is an aspect of nursing care and client belief of which the nurse should be aware. Beliefs about luck will influence client compliance with recommendations for actions as well as influence actions the client selects in relation to health. Beliefs about luck will also influence actions the nurse may take when responding to clients. [source] Aquatic Microbial Ecology: Water Desert, Microcosm, Ecosystem.INTERNATIONAL REVIEW OF HYDROBIOLOGY, Issue 4-5 2008What's Next? Abstract Aquatic microbial ecology aims at nothing less than explaining the world from "ecological scratch". It develops theories, concepts and models about the small and invisible living world that is at the bottom of every macroscopic aquatic system. In this paper we propose to look at the development of Aquatic Microbial Ecology as a reiteration of classical (eukaryotic) limnology and oceanography. This was conceptualized moving historically from the so-called water desert to microcosm to ecosystem. Each of these concepts characterizes a particular historical field of knowledge that embraces also practices and theories about living beings in aquatic environments. Concerning the question of "who is there", however, Aquatic Microbial Ecology historically developed in reverse order. Repetition, reiteration and replication notwithstanding, Aquatic Microbial Ecology has contributed new ideas, theories and methods to the whole field of ecology as well as to microbiology. The disciplining of Aquatic Microbial Ecology happened in the larger field of plankton biology, and it is still attached to this biological domain, even conceiving of itself very self-consciously as a discipline of its own. Today, Aquatic Microbial Ecology as a discipline is much broader than plankton ecology ever was, for it includes not only oceans and freshwaters but also benthic, interstitial and groundwater systems. The success of Aquatic Microbial Ecology is expressed by its influence on other fields in ecology. The challenge is to further develop its theoretical and methodological features while at the same time contributing to current pressing problems such as climate change or the management of global water resources. And then it may not be fanciful to suppose that even in the year nineteen hundred and nineteen a great number of minds are still only partially lit up by the cold light of knowledge. It is the most capricious illuminant. They are still apt to ruminate, without an overpowering bias to the truth, whether a kingfisher's body shows which way the wind blows; whether an ostrich digests iron; whether owls and ravens herald ill-fortune; and the spilling of salt bad luck; what the tingling of ears forebodes, and even to toy pleasantly with more curious speculations as to the joints of elephants and the politics of storks, which came within the province of the more fertile and better-informed brain of the author (1919) Virginia Woolf from the essay "Reading", In: Leonard Woolf (ed.), 1950: The Captain's Death Bed and Other Essays, , London: Hogarth Press, p. 157. (© 2008 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim) [source] Bringing Geography Back In: Civilizations, Wealth, and Poverty,INTERNATIONAL STUDIES REVIEW, Issue 3 2003Dwayne Woods This essay focuses on how we can account for the gap between rich and poor nations. The literature is organized under two subsuming analytical categories: space (geographical environment) and culture. At issue is the primacy of environmental factors versus culture in explaining the development of civilizations and their divergence. If geographical environment is primary, then development is determined by natural endowments and constraints. If culture is dominant, then geography can be overcome with luck, effective political institutions, determination, and inventiveness. The literature in this essay is intended to help to sharpen and focus this debate. [source] Patients' evaluations of the quality of care: influencing factors and the importance of engagementJOURNAL OF ADVANCED NURSING, Issue 5 2005Sophie H. Staniszewska BSc DPhil Aims., This paper reports a study exploring the process of patient evaluation and identifying the factors which influence this. Background., Patient experiences of health care have become a central focus for researchers, policymakers, clinicians and patient groups in many countries. While surveys of patient experiences have become increasingly common internationally, concerns about the validity of concepts such as satisfaction have cast doubt on the utility of their findings. These concerns reflect our limited understanding of patient evaluation and the factors that can influence this process. Methods., A qualitative design was adopted, using semi-structured interviews with a sample of outpatients in their homes in one county in England. In total, 41 patients participated in the study and were interviewed before their appointment. Of these patients, 37 were interviewed again after their appointment. Six of the latter were then re-interviewed 6 weeks after the appointment to explore whether evaluations had changed. Findings., Patient evaluation was influenced by a number of factors, including gratitude, faith, loyalty, luck and equity. The overall effect was to prompt positive evaluation, even when care was poor. These factors should be accounted for in the interpretation of patient experiences surveys. Patient experiences were further influenced by their sense of engagement with the system. A negative sense of engagement could have a major impact on the patient, resulting in disappointment or fear and a desire to leave the health care system, and in a negative evaluation of a specific aspect of care. Conclusions., Engagement may provide a more appropriate indicator of negative experience than dissatisfaction. The influence of these factors should be considered in future attempts to develop more sensitive and appropriate methods of eliciting patient experiences. [source] Luck, Evidence and WarJOURNAL OF APPLIED PHILOSOPHY, Issue 3 2006ROB LAWLOR abstract We seem to have conflicting intuitions regarding luck and war, and we seem to be faced with a dilemma. Either, we deny that a war can be made just or unjust as a result of luck, and we accept that we should not appeal to the outcome when claiming that the war was or was not justified. Or, alternatively, we allow that it is legitimate to base our judgements on the outcome, but as a result we must accept that luck can make a war just or unjust. Traditionally, these have been taken to be the two forks of the dilemma, but, in this paper, I argue that they are not the only options. Rather, we can appeal to the outcome of our actions without claiming that this is, in anyway, an appeal to moral luck. Rather, the outcome provides us with evidence. [source] "The Defendant Has Seemed to Live a Charmed Life": Hopt v. Utah: Territorial Justice, The Supreme Court of the United States, and Late Nineteenth-Century Death Penalty JurisprudenceJOURNAL OF SUPREME COURT HISTORY, Issue 1 2000Sidney L. Harring On March 7, 1887, the Supreme Court of the United States decided Fred Hopt's fourth appeal to that Court. The Utah Territory murderer's conviction had been reversed three times over seven years-his "charmed life"-but this time both his luck and his legal argument had run out: his fourth conviction was upheld. Justice Stephen J. Field dismissed Hopt's four major claims: that several members of the jury were improperly seated in spite of bias; that a doctor's evidence of cause of death was beyond the scope of his expertise; that the trial judge's "reasonable doubt" jury instruction was inadequate; and that the prosecutor's reference to the "many times the case had been before the courts" was prejudicial. Five months later, on August 11, Hopt was executed by a firing squad in the yard of the Utah Penitentiary. Hopt was only one of over two thousand convicted criminals, mostly murderers, who were legally executed in the United States in the two decades between 1880 and 1900. However, his defense team of court-appointed Salt Lake City lawyers had kept him alive for seven years. During that time he had four jury trials, four appeals to the Supreme Court of Utah Territory, and four appeals to the Supreme Court of the United States. He is the only death penalty litigant ever to be the subject of four full opinions of the Supreme Court of the United States. [source] Femtonik , aus dem Labor in die IndustrieLASER TECHNIK JOURNAL, Issue 4 2005Holger Kock Liebe Leserin, lieber Leser, sicher haben Sie es schon gelesen: der Nobelpreis für Physik wird in diesem Jahr an Roy Glauber, John Hall und Theodor Hänsch verliehen. Redaktion und Verlag gratulieren allen dreien, besonders herzlich natürlich Professor Hänsch aus München. Ich möchte hier nur ein paar Worte aus einem seiner ersten Interviews zitieren*: , What does it mean to you, to get the Prize? , Well, I mean, it's the ultimate recognition that scientists can hope to receive. It's recognition not just for my person, but, I think, for our entire team, for the organisations that have supported our work. And I think for Germany it is certainly a sign that, hopefully, will attract more young people into science, because for a while it looked like we were out of luck with modern Nobel Prizes. Of course, in the early days, Germany did pretty well. Nach den Preisen 1997, 1999 (Chemie) und 2001 ist das der vierte Nobelpreis in nur einer Dekade für ein Thema aus der Photonik , ein klarer Beleg für die Bedeutung des Themas. Als dieses Sonderheft geplant wurde, war von dieser Nobelpreisverleihung nichts zu ahnen, jetzt erscheint die Thematik Femtonik natürlich in einem ganz anderen Licht. Die Preisverleihung bestätigt, wie wichtig und grundlegend die Forschungen auf diesem Gebiet sind. Nicht zuletzt durch die Preisträger wurden Forschung und Entwicklung in den letzten Jahren massiv vorangetrieben und führten sowohl zu bahnbrechenden Erkenntnissen in der Grundlagenforschung als auch zu ersten neuen Verfahren und Produkten. Das Anliegen dieses Heftes ist es nun, dem Nicht-Experten die Grundlagen der Femtonik zu erklären und anhand von einigen Beispielen Anwendungen vorzustellen, die das Labor inzwischen verlassen haben. Darunter ist übrigens auch ein Beitrag (S. 48), der die Umsetzung genau jener Idee beschreibt, für die John Hall und Theodor Hänsch Ihren Preis erhielten. Ein entscheidender Hintergrund bei diesem Thema war und ist die gezielte Förderung durch das Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung. Ein Bekenntnis dazu finden Sie auch im Beitrag des Referatsleiters "Optische Technologien" auf Seite 25. Zum Zeitpunkt der Druckfreigabe stand die neue Regierungsmannschaft noch nicht fest. Wir können uns nur wünschen, dass die neue Regierung ernst macht mit Ihrem Ziel, Exzellenz in der Forschung und Entwicklung stärker zu fördern. Denn gerade der aktuelle Nobelpreis zeigt es: Spitzenforschung geht auch in Deutschland. Vor ein paar Jahren war Femtonik einfach "nur" Grundlagenforschung. Heute gibt es auf diesem Gebiet einerseits Nobelpreise, andererseits werden die ersten Kurzpulslaser in der Automobilindustrie eingeführt. Hoffen wir, dass dieses Beispiel Schule macht. * Interview von Joanna Rose, © Nobel Web AB [source] Winds of time and place: How context has affected a 50,year marriagePERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS, Issue 3 2003George Levinger To examine the effects of contexts on a relationship, we consider the case of our own 50,year marriage and its preliminaries. We employ a three,level conception of a couple's environment. The macrocontext refers to the prevailing cultural winds in a society that affect all its residents during any given historical era. The mesocontext pertains to the settings in which a particular relationship operates, such as its family and other social networks, physical habitats, work settings, or institutional associations, often chosen by the partners themselves. The microcontext is the pair's own intimate environment, constructed over time by the partners' unique interactions. Each of these contexts has affected us. We describe and analyze instances of luck, choice, and dyadic interaction in our 52,year relationship. [source] Luck, Mystery and Supremacy: D. Z. Phillips Reads Nagel and Williams on MoralityPHILOSOPHICAL INVESTIGATIONS, Issue 3 2007Stephen Mulhall This paper critically examines D. Z. Phillips' critical examination of Nagel's and Williams's famous exchange about moral luck. It argues that Phillips fails properly to identify the fundamental issues at stake in the exchange , particularly with respect to the role of scepticism, of the picture of the will as an extensionless point, and of the putative supremacy of morality , and so fails to recognise a certain commonality of interest between himself and those he criticises. [source] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||